Baked Spaghetti

This dish was created two weeks ago, but I haven't had time to blog because it was the end of the semester. Luckily, I'm finished with the semester since last night! Because of my lack of time to blog, there will be several posts added today.

I dislike the texture of normal spaghetti. I find it to be boring. I'll eat it and be fine, but I prefer other pastas. This recipe is delicious and we used thin spaghetti instead (for my sake). Oh and we were too hungry to wait for the dish to cool completely. If you actually wait for it to cool completely, you can serve the dish in blocks, which is kind of fun :). This recipe makes a lot.

Baked Spaghetti
6-10 servings.

Ingredients

- 1 pound of spaghetti (we used thin spaghetti)
- 1/4 pound of ground pork (you can use ground beef or turkey if desired)
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 2 cups of grated mozzarella 
- 1 cup of grated parmesan
- 1 26 ounce jar + 1/2 cup of pasta sauce (We used Prego's Chunky Garden Tomato, Onion & Garlic. 26 ounces was not enough for how much spaghetti we used, so we added about 1/2 cup more of pasta sauce.)
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- Pepper
- Salt
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- Olive oil

Directions

1. Boil the spaghetti al dente. Remember, the pasta will continue to bake in the oven.
2. While the spaghetti's boiling, in a medium saucepan, add olive oil, the ground meat, some pepper (to your liking), some salt (to your liking), the minced garlic, and half of the chopped onion. When meat is no longer pink, add the green bell pepper. Stir until cooked.
3. When the pasta is finished boiling, drain as usual. Rinse through cold water to stop the cooking process and set aside.
4. Boil the pasta sauce with the remainder of the onions, 1 cup of mozzarella, 1/2 cup of parmesan, and add pepper and salt to taste. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
5. When pasta sauce tastes nice to your liking, add the ground meat and bell pepper combination. Stir and make sure the meat is evenly spread.
6. In large casserole dish (ours was 13x9), add the spaghetti and combine with the meaty pasta sauce mixture and 1 cup of breadcrumbs. Spread sauce evenly.
7. Top the dish with 1 cup of mozzarella and 1/2 cup of parmesan. Wrap the dish tightly in foil. Cook for 20-25 minutes or until cheese has melted.

I recommend letting it cool for at least 15 minutes, so you can serve it in blocks unlike what my friend and I did :).